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Caring Oliver joins Alice’s race for life
Alice Pyne, who suffers with Hodgkins Lyphoma, and has been given just six weeks to find a bone marrow donor.
A young cancer sufferer has inspired his family to help another youngster battling the same disease.
Nicola Gornall, from Grimsargh, near Preston, said hearing her 12-year-old son, Oliver, tell of his fears of needing a bone marrow transplant had driven her to help the Pyne family from Ulverston, Cumbria.
She met the family when Oliver was in Manchester Children’s Hospital two years ago suffering the same Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cancer as, Alice Pyne.
While Oliver is currently in remission, Alice, 14, has been told by doctors she has just three weeks to find a bone marrow donor after a worldwide search of organ registers failed to find a match.
In a bid to help, Nicola has now set up a walk-in clinic at the Black Bull pub on Garstang Road, Fulwood, next Friday, May 14, where people can come in and give a sample of salvia to see if they could be the crucial match.
She said: “When Oliver heard about Alice he said to me ‘That could have been me, Mum’ and asked if he had a match on the register, and that just broke my heart and really made me think.
“It really is one in a million but the thing is there could be someone sat at home right now who is the perfect match for Alice.
“She is such a happy-go-lucky girl who really deserves the chance of life.
“Alice’s mum, Vicky, and I set up a Facebook page a fortnight ago and it has got more than 2,000 members already and about ten other walk-in clinic events have been set up all over the country from people who thought about it.”
Alice has had extensive chemotherapy and radiation treatment and a stem cell transplant, but has been told a bone marrow match is the only way to save her.
The Pyne family are being supported by the Anthony Nolan Trust, a charity which recruits blood and bone marrow donors, in their hunt for a match.
Experts from the charity will be at next week’s event in Preston where anyone aged between 18 and 40 years old can take a simple saliva test to join the national bone marrow register and potentially provide a life-saving match.
Nicola has even enlisted the help of Simon Nash, the man behind Preston North End mascot, the Deepdale Duck, to help promote her cause.
She said: “Simon has been great, he even got North End to put details of the event up on the big screens during their match the other day.”
Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is a type of cancer which originates from white blood cells and attacks lymph nodes, the bean-shaped glands found all over the body.
To get tested, go to The Black Bull between 3.30pm and 7.30pm on Friday, May 14 for further information, then visit the office of Nicola’s weight loss counselling business, Lighter Life, on Broadway, Fulwood to join the register.
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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